Are you ready to celebrate?
January 6 is King’s Day, or Twelfth night. It is 12 days after Christmas, and is the traditional day to take down the Christmas tree. To many New Orleanians, the most important thing about January 6th is that it is the start of the Carnival season.
King’s Day, also called the Feast of Epiphany, celebrates the day when the three wise men brought gifts to baby Jesus. The celebration began in France in the 12th century. When French colonists settled in New Orleans, the tradition came with them. After the Civil War, a group called the “Twelfth Night Revelers” started the tradition of having a King Cake to commence the Mardi Gras season.
Many New Orleanians go to King Cake parties and eat King Cake once a week from Twelfth Night until Ash Wednesday, which is the day after Mardi Gras. The person that gets the slice with the King Cake baby in it, traditionally host the next King Cake party. The colored sugar on the cake is purple, green and gold. Purple represents justice, green symbolizes faith, and gold signifies power.
In keeping with our southern traditions we will bake a traditional King Cake, a ring shaped cake that taste more like bread than cake. This year we will try a new recipe by Rheinlander Bakery which has been donating a portion of the proceeds of their King Cake sales to a fund helping victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Do you enjoy a King Cake during Mardi Gras season?
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